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MusliModerat.net - At a time when media headlines point to a spike in global intolerance, here’s some good news: most people around the world don’t say they believe any single race, religion or culture is better than another.That was the finding of a multi-nation WIN/Gallup International poll conducted at the end of last year and published this week. The majority of people and more than half of the 66 countries surveyed say there’s no such thing as racial, religious or cultural superiority.

But the issue divides many, and a handful, all of which are troubled nations with developing economies, says superiority does exits.

“Overall the global tolerance towards racial, religious and cultural differences is a dominating norm,” Kancho Stoychev, president of Gallup International Association, said in a statement. “Exceptions from this norm are occurring in countries, nations or regions with serious internal or external conflicts.”

The findings provide some ground for optimism even amid an increase in news reports of attacks linked to intolerance. Since last week, a man shouting anti-Muslim slogans killed two people in Portland, Oregon, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert in Manchester, England and gunmen shot dead 26 Christian Copts in Egypt’s Minya province. The survey also coincides with a report released this week by the Institute of Economics and Peace that said despite conflicts in the Middle East, terrorism in Europe, and the rise of nationalist parties, the world is actually becoming more peaceful. At the same time, that report found the US dropped most in rankings among peaceful countries.

According to the Gallup International survey which reported Bloomberg, national majorities that agreed or strongly agreed that superiority exists were more likely to share that belief across the categories of religion, race and culture. The eight countries where that was most the case were Paraguay, Bangladesh, the Palestinian territories, Ghana, Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia and Macedonia.